Events
Tunisia, Egypt, and the Middle East uprisings
October 2001
Occupy Wall Street protests (began Sept 17). Claim: 1% of people have half of nation' wealth. Factcheck: 2007 stat* says top 1% has 38% of wealth.
At times it can be hard to discern, but, at least to me, the message was clear: The demonstrators are seeking accountability for Wall Street and corporate America for the financial crisis and the growing economic inequality gap. --nytimes
Response to occupy wall street: We are the 53% website.
UAE driving accident rates plunge 20-40% during 3-day blackberry outage
Libya: Sirte captured, Gaddafi killed. Libya considers the revolution successful, and starts rebuilding the nation. UN considers its mission complete.
Libyans being criticized for mistreating Gaddafi (and his body) as well as for many civilian deaths. Is this a portent of things to come in a new Libya?
Equality in America: compare Oliver DeMille (very conservative) and Glen Greenwald (very liberal). How big a gulf, if any, is there between the way the law treats the upper class and the lower class?
Greenwald: I think most Americans realize—and I think you see this driving the Occupy protest movement that you covered at the beginning of the show and that everyone is aware of now—that there wasn’t just economic—poor decisions that precipitated the financial crisis, but massive, system- and industry-wide fraud on the part of Wall Street and the banking industry. And yet, there has been virtually no criminal investigations of any kind, let alone prosecutions or accountability.
At the same time, the United States is the largest prison state in the world. We imprison more of our citizens than any country on earth, including China and India and other countries with many more times the people that we have, for even trivial infractions, things that no other country in the Western world imprisons people for. And this chasm between how we treat ordinary Americans in the justice system, imprisoning them for petty and trivial offenses, versus how we treat the world’s most powerful and wealthiest individuals, who can commit the kind of fraud on the massive scale that we saw in 2008 with no accountability, pure impunity, is really what drove me to write the book and I think is what is driving so much citizen anger.
DeMille: The law would be the same for all.
If this seems abstract, try starting a business in your local area.
In fact, start two.
Let the local zoning commissions, city council and other regulating agencies know that you are starting a business, that it will employ you and nine employees, and then keep track of what fees you must pay and how many hoops you must jump through.
Have your agent announce to the same agencies that a separate company, a big corporation, is bringing in a large enterprise that will employ 4,000 people (or, in a more urban setting, 24,000 people)—all of whom will pay taxes to the local area and bring growth and prestige.
Then simply sit back and watch how the two businesses are treated.
In most places in the United States, one will face an amazing amount of red tape, meetings, filings and obstacles—the other will likely be courted and given waivers, tax breaks, benefits and publicity.
Add up the cost to government of each, and two things will likely surprise you: 1) how much you will have to spend to set up a small business, and 2) how much the government will be willing to spend to court the large business.
November
World population reaches 7 billion. (now or early next year) Fact check on claims the the whole world could fit in Texas: that would be 40 people/acre (said to be roughly the density of New York City) -- families of 10 get a ¼ acre plot, families of 5 get a duplex, couples get an apartment. D&C 104:17-18
Obama decides to withdraw from Iraq by year end, fulfilling promises made by Bush, but only after failing to get the Iraqi's to grant immunity to US troops to allow them to stay. Days later he announces a buildup in the Persian Gulf, and suddenly the news outlets notice that besides the 40,000 troops in Iraq, we already have another 40,000 in other Gulf countries (esp. Kuwait).
Wikipedia has good updates on global deployments: 370,000 total military personnel in foreign countries. (I presume this does not include contractors.) Top countries:
- Afghanistan: ~100,000
- Germany: 54,000
- Iraq: between 40,000 and 50,000
- South Korea: 28,500
- Kuwait: between 10,000 - 23,000 (depending on source)
- Italy: 10,000
- United Kingdom: 9,000
UNESCO recognizes palestine. Just a branch of the UN, but considered a step to full UN recognition, which USA vows to veto. Should we consider the points raised on the Israeli and Palestinian sides?
What is UNESCO? "The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations. Its stated purpose is to contribute to peace and security by promoting international collaboration through education, science, and culture in order to further universal respect for justice, the rule of law, and human rights along with fundamental freedoms proclaimed in the UN Charter." -- wikipedia
Interesting things are happening in the economy. Operation Twist: buy long term bonds and sell short term bonds, in order to force the interest rate down on long term bonds, which affect consumer interest rates more than short term bonds. QE3: wikipedia explains what quantitative easing is, and how it compares with simply printing new money. Greek default crisis. New information and analysis of 2008 rice shortage. Worries about a debt crisis in Italy are increasing.
Way cool Arab Spring timeline!!
Syria. First protests. Then the government shoots protesters. Protesters don't give up. Now the government has broken multiple promises to stop shooting its own citizens. Even the Arab League has condemned them. Sanctions are expected soon (although some thought the Iraq sanctions had the wrong effect). How long can they hold out?
Tuesday's Democracy Now was excellent. Egypt update, student load and pepper spray, and the National Defence Authorization Act, which would:
- effectively extend the definition of what’s considered the U.S. military’s battlefield to anywhere in the world, even the United States
- authorize the military to jail anyone it considers a terrorism suspect anywhere in the world without charge or trial
- creating a system of indefinite military detention within the United States by statute
- If you communicate with Al Qaeda, you’re even suspected of being even a supporter of Al Qaeda in some way
- mandatory military custody provision, anyone suspected of terrorism in any way would have to be put into military custody
- it extends the transfer restrictions. It means you can’t transfer anyone out of Guantanamo
December
European countries are vowing sanctions against Iran for it nuclear program, while other Arab states are threatening sanctions against Syria for its violent crackdowns on protesters.
Fed does "credit swaps" etc to help out Europe's financial crisis. Why? The value of euros is falling, in relation to dollars. As the relative value of dollars goes up, products produced on dollar scale and sold for euros (i.e. US exports) go up in price. This threatens to harm the US export market. The actions of the Fed are essentially inflationary, and help lower the value of the dollar and raise the value of the euro. This sustains the relative values of the currencies, and the export markets. Which is worse: more inflation or fewer sales due to decreased exports?